When the Senate earlier this week voted to advance a $40 billion package to support Ukraine, only 11 Republicans put struggling Americans first by voting against the foreign aid boondoggle.
The final tally was 81-11 and represents the first of potentially three procedural votes paving the way for the final Senate passage of the funding.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who has described lending support and financing to Ukraine as “the most important thing going on in the world right now,” puffed that the aid package would pass without issue despite a small opposition faction.
“There’s always been isolationist voices in the Republican Party,” he told reporters prior to the vote. “It won’t create a problem, we’ll get the job done.”
“The job” being given a massive amount of your tax dollars to foreigners, while Americans suffer under a crumbling economy.
11 Republicans willing to vote for America First https://t.co/8E7xccgZxW
— Ryan James Girdusky (@RyanGirdusky) May 17, 2022
RELATED: McConnell Focuses On Billions In Aid To Ukraine While Americans Struggle To Buy Baby Formula, Gas
Only 11 Republican Senators Side With America First
It won’t create a problem, Mitch? Americans are struggling in every facet of life financially in large part due to out-of-control government spending and an additional $40 billion in aid for a conflict in Eastern Europe is no big deal?
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It’s a problem when taxpayer money is going to Ukraine and the average American is pulling up to the gas pump or walking into the grocery store with an empty wallet.
And before anyone forgets, when Republicans controlled Congress during the Trump presidency, they refused to give him just a few billion to build the wall and secure our border.
One of the Senate Republicans who voted against the Ukraine aid package, Josh Hawley (R-MO), took issue with McConnell’s mischaracterization that those in opposition are isolationists.
“That’s not isolationism. That’s nationalism,” he fired back on Twitter. “It’s about prioritizing American security and American interests.”
That’s not isolationism. That’s nationalism. It’s about prioritizing American security and American interests
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) May 16, 2022
Putting American interests first is a foreign concept to the old-guard GOP.
In addition to Hawley, 10 other Republicans voted against the Ukraine aid package. The full list is here:
- Marsha Blackburn (Tennessee)
- John Boozman (Arkansas)
- Mike Braun (Indiana)
- Mike Crapo (Idaho)
- Bill Hagerty (Tennessee)
- Josh Hawley (Montana)
- Mike Lee (Utah)
- Elaine Lummis (Wyoming)
- Roger Marshall (Kansas)
- Rand Paul (Kentucky)
- Tommy Tuberville (Alabama)
Thank you to every Senator who refused to rubber-stamp the $40 Billion aid bill to Ukraine. @MarshaBlackburn @JohnBoozman @MikeCrapo @SenatorHagerty @SenMikeLee @HawleyMO @SenLummis @RandPaul @SenTuberville @RogerMarshallMD
— Concerned Veterans for America (@ConcernedVets) May 17, 2022
Slap in the Face to America
Senator Rand Paul, who is on that list, temporarily blocked passage of the $40 billion Ukraine aid package last week, calling it a “slap in the face” to Americans struggling to keep their heads above water.
“While I sympathize with the people of Ukraine, and commend their fight against Putin, we cannot continue to spend money we don’t have,” explained the Kentucky Senator. “Passing this bill brings the total we’ve sent to Ukraine to nearly $54 billion over the course of two months.”
Do you know what $54 billion is more than? The entire budgetary resources of the Small Business Administration (SBA – $39.7 billion).
It is almost the entire defense budget of Russia.
Does it not seem reasonable that small businesses, in a struggling economy, would be better served as a recipient of such outlandish funding?
Perhaps funding for baby formula?
Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) calls $40 billion military aid package to Ukraine “a gift” and blocks it from passing. pic.twitter.com/Lxfez8LApb
— The Recount (@therecount) May 12, 2022
Paul truly laid into the Ukraine First faction of the Republican Party, the group siding with Democrats over Americans, during his objection.
“It’s threatening our own national security, and it’s frankly a slap in the face to millions of taxpayers who are struggling to buy gas, groceries, and find baby formula,” he explained.
The $40 billion aid package to Ukraine – which provides both humanitarian and military aid – was passed by a 368-57 vote in the House.
The media is touting passage of the aid legislation as bipartisan, proof of just how necessary it is. But ignorance isn’t more palatable just because both sides agree to said ignorance.